The two sides of Capitol Hill appear to be engaging in a bidding war to see who can put more money toward the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases in its version of the economic stimulus bill.

The House included $335 million in its package. But the Senate, not to be outdone, provided $400 million in STD spending in its bill.

When the Drudge Report noted the House funds Wednesday morning, it set off a round of criticism from Republicans who said the money made no sense in a $819 billion bill designed to get the economy back on track.

Corrected: "Senate big spenders will never be overbid in wasting tax dollars. But how in the world does STD research create jobs? Wait. ... Don't answer that. I don't want to know," said Wesley Denton, an aide to Sen. Jim DeMint, South Carolina Republican.

But the Senate bill, on page 138 of the 431-page measure, directs $400 million to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention "for the screening and prevention of sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV."

The Senate is expected to begin floor debate on its stimulus bill next week.

Sen. Tom Harkin, Iowa Democrat and chairman of the Senate Appropriations health subcommittee, listed the allocation as one of the noteworthy achievements of the Senate spending bill, along with $75 million for smoking cessation and $870 million to prepare for a pandemic influenza outbreak.

On the House side, the National Republican Congressional Committee fired off e-mails Wednesday challenging freshman Democrats to take a stand on whether they thought $335 million for STD prevention was a good way to spend economic-recovery money.

The STD money was included in the bill that passed the House by a 244-188 vote Wednesday evening, but House Democrats were forced to remove a separate $200 million that had been designated to boost contraceptive coverage under Medicaid, the government-run health care plan for the poor.

That provision was removed after President Obama made a personal appeal to take it out of the bill.

Republicans and some Democrats have complained that the recovery bill is loaded with items that would provide little short-term help in boosting the economy. Republicans say the bill instead has become a vehicle for congressional Democrats to get approval for projects they've been unable to secure in recent years with congressional Republicans and President Bush able to foil their efforts.

Never make someone a priority in your life when that someone treats you like an option.

I found a very cool website this morning called Politifact ( http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/ ). It has an "Obameter" to keep track of how many of Obama's 510 promises he made during his campaign he actually keeps. Right now, he's doing pretty good, only one broken promise, 6 fulfilled, and several in the works. Kinda cool website!

"Remember - every time your dog gets somewhere on a tight leash *a fairy dies and it's all your fault.* Think of the fairies." http://www.positivepetzine.com"

Barack Obama is the best thing that has happened to America in the last 100 years. Truly, he is the savior of America's future. He is the best thing ever.

Despite the fact that he has some of the lowest approval ratings among recent presidents, history will see Barack Obama as the source of America's resurrection. Barack Obama has plunged the country into levels of debt that we could not have previously imagined; his efforts to nationalize health care have been met with fierce resistance nationwide; TARP bailouts and stimulus spending have shown little positive effect on the national economy; unemployment is unacceptably high and looks to remain that way for most of a decade; legacy entitlement programs have ballooned to unsustainable levels, and there is a seething anger in the populace.

That's why Barack Obama is such a good thing for America.

Obama is the symbol of a creeping liberalism that has infected our society like a cancer for the last 100 years. Just as Hitler is the face of fascism, Obama will go down in history as the face of unchecked liberalism. The cancer metastasized to the point where it could no longer be ignored.

Average Americans who have quietly gone about their lives, earning a paycheck, contributing to their favorite charities, going to high school football games on Friday night, spending their weekends at the beach or on hunting trips they've gotten off the fence. They've woken up. There is a level of political activism in this country that we haven't seen since the American Revolution, and Barack Obama has been the catalyst that has sparked a restructuring of the American political and social consciousness.

Think of the crap we've slowly learned to tolerate over the past 50 years as liberalism sought to re-structure the America that was the symbol of freedom and liberty to all the people of the world. Immigration laws were ignored on the basis of compassion. Welfare policies encouraged irresponsibility, the fracturing of families, and a cycle of generations of dependency. Debt was regarded as a tonic to lubricate the economy. Our children left school having been taught that they are exceptional and special, while great numbers of them cannot perform basic functions of mathematics and literacy. Legislators decided that people could not be trusted to defend their own homes, and stripped citizens of their rights to own firearms. Productive members of society have been penalized with a heavy burden of taxes in order to support legions of do-nothings who lay around, reveling in their addictions, obesity, indolence, ignorance and “disabilities.” Criminals have been arrested and re-arrested, coddled and set free to pillage the citizenry yet again. Lawyers routinely extort fortunes from doctors, contractors and business people with dubious torts.

We slowly learned to tolerate these outrages, shaking our heads in disbelief, and we went on with our lives.

But Barack Obama has ripped the lid off a seething cauldron of dissatisfaction and unrest.

In the time of Barack Obama, Black Panther members stand outside polling places in black commando uniforms, slapping truncheons into their palms. ACORN a taxpayer-supported organization is given a role in taking the census, even after its members were caught on tape offering advice to set up child prostitution rings. A former Communist is given a paid government position in the White House as an advisor to the president. Auto companies are taken over by the government, and the auto workers' union whose contracts are completely insupportable in any economic sense is rewarded with a stake in the company. Government bails out Wall Street investment bankers and insurance companies, who pay their executives outrageous bonuses as thanks for the public support. Terrorists are read their Miranda rights and given free lawyers. And, despite overwhelming public disapproval, Barack Obama has pushed forward with a health care plan that would re-structure one-sixth of the American economy.

I don't know about you, but the other day I was at the courthouse doing some business, and I stepped into the court clerk's office and changed my voter affiliation from “Independent” to “Republican.” I am under no illusion that the Republican party is perfect, but at least they're starting to awaken to the fact that we cannot sustain massive levels of debt; we cannot afford to hand out billions of dollars in corporate subsidies; we have to somehow trim our massive entitlement programs; we can no longer be the world's policeman and dole out billions in aid to countries whose citizens seek to harm us.

Literally millions of Americans have had enough. They're organizing, they're studying the Constitution and the Federalist Papers, they're reading history and case law, they're showing up at rallies and meetings, and a slew of conservative candidates are throwing their hats into the ring. Is there a revolution brewing? Yes, in the sense that there is a keen awareness that our priorities and sensibilities must be radically re-structured. Will it be a violent revolution? No. It will be done through the interpretation of the original document that has guided us for 220 years the Constitution. Just as the pendulum swung to embrace political correctness and liberalism, there will be a backlash, a complete repudiation of a hundred years of nonsense. A hundred years from now, history will perceive the year 2010 as the time when America got back on the right track. And for that, we can thank Barack Hussein Obama.

All I can say is this country as a whole disgusts me. The way so called adults act is unreal.

You can cover it up with a bunch of BS articles about how he's so terrible and he just wants to ruin this country but at the root of it all the truth is that you people can't handle the fact that there is a colored man in the oval office.

It's no mystery as to why we have never had a black man in the white house, any good black man that has spoke up for this country has been snuffed out and now that there is one in the white house this country is acting like a bunch of damn 5 yr olds. Bravo to you all. No wonder we are destroying ourselves when people still can't look past the color of a man's skin.

My dear. That was spoken by a black person, not a white one. For the most part I think if the job is being accomplished in a fair and unbiased manner, truly for the benefit of the people, no one gives a damn if the person is green, blue, or purple.

Actually, and I'm just speaking for myself, my dislike has nothing to do with the color of his skin. (I'll spare you the "I have black friends" speech )

but I do, I swear!! No, really! I even have a picture in my phone to prove it!

I was raised by parents who I would generally define as "liberal." My father attended Woodstock. My mother had all three of us before she was 28, my parents were married before they were 20, started with nothing, and have worked for everything they have now. They have worked their asses off for my entire life.

My mother's father was the son of an immigrant, and he died when my grandfather was 3. My grandfather was raised by his mother - and she worked as a cook, a maid, a nurse and many other jobs. My grandfather had to be sent to friends and family growing up because her jobs often required her to live at her employers, when he was 7, he had to bring his own dog to be put to sleep at the vet's office because the aunt he was to be staying with wouldn't let him bring the dog. When my grandfather was old enough, he started working for the Canadian Railroad doing surveying, and sending money home. At one point, there was a mixup with checks and the checks that he thought were being sent to his mom were sitting in an office. She was evicted from her home. When he got back from a 6 month survey, she was living in a room in the church, because in Canada in 1935, in a town of 150 people, the church was "welfare."

My mother's mother's family owned one of the mills that the the government took during WWII for "the war effort." After the war, the family business wasn't quite right again, so it was sold. Grandma was a teacher, served dinner every night at 6:00, and Sunday dinner was in the dining room on the china with the silver. Because "that is how it is."

My father's father was in the navy, like his father was, like his was. When he retired he worked for the post office.

My father's mother was in the ladies auxiliary, was involved in the national level, raised three boys and was a stay at home mom.

My point? I look at my parents - who started out as two teenagers who realized it was time to get married ( ) And somehow in 40 years managed stay married, raise three kids, stay out of debt, stay out of trouble, pay taxes, put their kids in public schools, put their kids through college, get all three going in the right direction.

My parents both came from "normal" families. They didn't have trust funds, and they barely had bank accounts when they started. When they had my sister, they needed food stamps at the very beginning. My mom made wedding dresses to pay for rent and food, my dad put himself through college with a full academic scholarship.

I look at the current administration and it just plain pisses me off. This administration is all about entitlement - everyone "deserves" everything. Bullshit. I think people deserve basic things, and medical care is one of them, but this is far beyond medical care....

Corporate bailouts? piss me off. You ran your company into the ground, so it went out of business. Tough crap. Make a better product and compete in the marketplace. That's how capitalism works.

Credit card bailouts? piss me off. You signed that agreement. You should have read the damn thing. You can see the numbers in the fine print, the interest rate is right there in black and white. You bought that crap, now pay for it. I have no sympathy - and I'm in the same boat, and I'm paying for it every day.

Every time I turn on the tv I see another government run program that SCREAMS "entitlement." Now there is one that will give you a cell phone and 200 free minutes a month. I'm sorry? WHAT? Who pays for that??? I do. You do. Somehow, I grew up without a cellphone. So did millions of other people. But now, the government has decided people are entitled to cellphones as some kind of "basic right of being an American."

So, in 40 years, from nothing, though hard work, my parents have made something of themselves... and taa-daa! The reward? Current government says "We get to take a HUGE chunk of that because we DESERVE it." why do we deserve it? well, because we SAY we deserve it! Because YOU have it, and the people who sit on their asses and "deserve a cell phone with 200 minutes a month" ... but someone has to pay for that!!!!

And quite frankly... I don't care what color the guy's skin is. He could be purple, with pink stripes...

This administration has become more and more entitlement based, and it sickens me. There are people who truly need help. And THOSE people should get help, but "needing help" in my world is health care, education, clothing, food and shelter. It's not a cell phone. It's not bailing out people who bought houses they couldn't afford in the first place. It's not bailing out banks who wrote bad mortgages. It's none of that crap.

He's the head of the administration - when I think of it I think of him.

Michelle

Inside me is a thin woman trying to get out. I usually shut the bitch up with a martini.

AllAmericanPUP wrote:You can cover it up with a bunch of BS articles about how he's so terrible and he just wants to ruin this country but at the root of it all the truth is that you people can't handle the fact that there is a colored man in the oval office.

Michelle's response was much nicer than mine would be, so I'll leave it at this: how DARE you call me racist just because I don't like somebody's politics? That's complete and utter BS and it pisses me off. A lot.

"Remember - every time your dog gets somewhere on a tight leash *a fairy dies and it's all your fault.* Think of the fairies." http://www.positivepetzine.com"